If you were to take a peek into the Roku offices this morning, you’d see beaming employees. Why the excitement? Today we announced a $45 million strategic investment from News Corporation, British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), and our prior venture investors Menlo Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners.

While this strategic investment and the activities that it affords us are great, even more significant for us is the demonstration of the industry’s confidence in Roku – with industry giants like News Corporation and Sky taking notice – as the leading distribution platform to bring streaming entertainment to mainstream consumers.

These partners are actually not new to Roku. We launched FoxNews.com, WSJ Live and XFactor channels on Roku in the U.S. last year. And Sky announced last week that Now TV, its brand new Internet TV service, is coming to Roku in the U.K. later this year. NOW TV will open up more choice for consumers by making Sky Movies – followed later this year by Sky Sports – available across a wide range of Internet-connected devices.

Roku has always been a fast-growing company and with this new capital, we’ll be able invest more in brand awareness activities like advertising, develop new international markets, and increase engineering and production to support sales growth of both hardware and digital media services.

Our philosophy is to give consumers the best streaming TV experience with the most content and at the best value in the market; it has served us well as millions of customers have brought Roku into their homes. Now with these new strategic relationships, we are poised to become the TV distribution platform of the future!

If you want to read more details, you can see our full press release here.

If you guys have reached an agreement with NewsCorp, **PLEASE** see if you can get Speed2 for the Roku. RIght now it’s only available if you have a provider who has struck a deal with the network, which mine (Comcast) has not. I really, really, REALLY want that channel.

Anonymous

FoxNews 24hrs????

http://twitter.com/BethSioux Beth Perry

Definitely 24h FNC, but Box BUSINESS as well!!!!!! I LOVE John Stossel’s mind!

awhite

Please get F1 to offer a subscription package like MLB!

Dan

Please just get a good YouTube app. Please.

Kevin L.

Dan you should check out 1080p or Playon to watch Youtube video’s .

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1325002465 Terri Miller

kevin where is 1080p and playon ? im new to all of this.

thanks ! terri

Anonymous

Spotify, por favòr

Sam

Maybe now you can afford to throw a few shekels at the awful Hulu Plus app. Anyways, I love Roku and wish you guys the best.

April

You’re right Sam and I pay for the HuLu+ I think it’s awful to navigate through unless you know exactly what you are looking for.

D_knuckle

Re: Hulu on Roku
Unfortunately, Hulu wants the interface to be similar across platforms(roku,pc,etc), so it’s unlikely Hulu will change it, unless they decide to change all of them. I agree it’s not as easy to navigate.That one is on Hulu.

Sam

Heck if they just fix the performance issues I’d be happy. Things take forever to load. Sometimes if you hit “pause” it just decides not to, or pauses way later. It’s usually not worth it to fast-forward, because it is so slow. I’ve had the Hulu app crash the whole Roku. It is just all around terrible, compared to, say, the Netflix and Plex apps. And I pay for Hulu Plus just to get it on Roku!

Alee242

now you got the cash can you make facebook work like it dos on line and thin i wont need my labtop.

Doug217

ANYTHING besides Faux news please?

Anonymous

Try not to be a dolt.

Ohcomeonnow

When are we going to get BBC1 here in the states? US programming stinks….need more shows from across the pond.

Paul

Couldn’t agree more. We need current BBC streaming here in the states!!!

Ohcomeonnow

When are we going to get BBC1 here in the states? US programming stinks….need more shows from across the pond.

Fmtransmiter

Just hooked my new ROKU up last night and am amazed. This IS the wave of the future and I look fwd to your company bringing more MAIN stream channels and as soon as you do, it will explode…

Fmtransmiter

Just hooked my new ROKU up last night and am amazed. This IS the wave of the future and I look fwd to your company bringing more MAIN stream channels and as soon as you do, it will explode…

This is the Internet, why limit the shows to the UK? They should also stream to the US.

Phillip_9282

Also fuel tv would be a great addition!

Geckoguamy

love roku but would like nfl network if possible thanks for bringing this to us great job to everyone

http://twitter.com/brenda525 Brenda Young

HGTV and MeTV are the 2 channels I miss most from regular cable TV…..any chance they’ll come to Roku??

John

I think HGTV is available through the PlayOn channel.

Lowmiller34

No wonder I love my Roku’s!

Shiller

NOW TV would be great if it had more than one location. Nothing wrong with Harrisburg, PA, except I don’t live there.

guest

While it is nice that FoxNews.com is on Roku, I’m not happy yet, because it isn’t streaming their live broadcasts – the REAL ones on TV. That is what I am holding out for before I finally cut the chord to cable.

Anonymous

You should take that cable, and hang yourself with it.

Anonymous

typical msm addict

Nope

Better yet, hang you with it.

PaulBismarck

Will any of the new funding be used towards resolving the Roku Netflix problems?

Love having Shoutcast and TuneIn radio apps…can you get I Heart Radio?

http://www.facebook.com/dennis.wenger1 Dennis Wenger

Looking for AMC and the Fx channels, myself.

frustratedCustomer

You guys should spend some serious money in your customer service (new orders/sales) department. I called the first time to check if LT supports DISHworld IPTV. Answer got Yes. While buying online I wanted to confirm again, answer got NO. Called again, answer got YES. Got a call after unsatisfied chat, asked again, answer got NO. 2 Yes and 2 NO. what ridiculous knowledge these guys had, I must say. They dint know anything about the availability of the different devices. They were mixing Hd with 2 HD and what not.

Talked to the supervisor Dheeraj, the supervisor said that dishworld iptv will not work with Roku 2 hd. I said please confirm. He laughed and he said Roku 2 HD wont support Dishworld iptv. I said visit roku.com/dishworld. Then he agreed. Common, even the supervisor does not know what product supports what, which product is available etc etc.

Free shipping on everything, I had to inform them and then they went again on the website and then they agreed. If this is the start not sure how the journey would be. I will keep myself away from you guys until you guys improve on the customer service representatives knowledge and quality

I still cannot believe its happening. The count is 3 Yes and 3 No for DISHworld IPTV support on Roku LT, from Roku Support Team Members

——————————–
——————————–
Roku Technical Support Response sent to me via email on 7/26 9:58PM PST
———————————-
“Thank you for contacting Roku Chat Support and this is in regards with the case number 1507304. We really apologize for the inconvenience.The channel Dishworld IPTV is currently available only with the players Roku2 HD,XD and XS. Please refer this below link:http://www.roku.com/dishworld
If you have any issues with Roku please feel free to contact us through:.
Live Chat: http://support.roku.com/home (Monday to Sunday 8AM to 8PM PST)
Our support agents will be more than happy to assist you. Thank you for choosing Roku.
Regards,
Dheeraj
Roku Support Group”
———————————-
———————————-

Thank you for contacting Roku Technical Support and for giving us valuable feedback.

We understand that you contact Roku chat support and phone support to ask them if Dishworld channel will be available on Roku LT.We are looking forward in getting this concern fixed. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

If you are still confuse it Dishworld channel will be available on Roku LT and if its free shipping if you purchase to our website. Let me answer your questions.

Yes, Dishworld iptv channel is available on Roku LT, its also available with Roku 2 XD and Roku 2 XS, and if you purchase roku player on the website, Yes, its fress shipping for brandnew roku player, but for the Refurbish devices its not free shipping.

If you have other questions, you may also reach us through our convenient modes of contact options by visiting this link:

The count is now 4 Yes and 3 No for Roku LT supporting DISHworld IPTV, as informed by the Roku Support Team

frustratedCustomer

The count is now 4 Yes and 4 No. The last rep to say me no (via chat) is Praveen.

frustratedCustomer

As I guessed and confirmed with Praveen, his supervisor is Dheeraj with whom I had a verbal conversation, and everyone else reporting to Dheeraj are informing me that Roku LT does not support DISHworld IPTV.

frustratedCustomer

The count is now 4 Yes and 5 No. The last rep is Ranjini.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=18903256 Jim Wilson

Great news for u guys…I say its been the best 60 dollars or so I ever spent with all the content on it and so easy to use. Hope this leads this little miracle to even more use.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Willis/828459920 Dave Willis

i had the roku box and was not really that impressed with it lots of clips of the shows that i watch but never the actual shows, we searched for a month to find them they are just not there. gave the box to my daughter she loves it. me on the other hand prefer hulu and netflix i can find my shows my wife can find hers all most all of the time the next day what we cant find it on youtube the next day. everything else we download. this little box would be great but just not for me. however if sky sports 1 were on it i would be interested in it.

RKCole

You all are doing a wonderful job. I only have a Roku 2 XS, and it definitely has revolutionized my home.

I am a partially blind user, and I am really looking forward to where Roku is going. Some questions have come up on mailing lists which I am involved in which were raised by totally blind users who were wondering if there was any way that a screen reader could be implemented in Roku so that the screen contents could be read to them and so they could completely utilize what the Roku has to offer, minus the games. I do not know how easy or difficult this would be, but I am sure it is possible. The folks who wre asking these questions (just as well as myself) are not harsh, staunch forcers of “accessible rights”; we just want to see products excel in all areas and we to be usable by as wide an audience as they coudl be .Regardless of the case, you all are doing a great job!

I researched numerous streaming players after I dropped my cable, but Roku was the only one which seemed to have something excellent to offer, and I definitely do not regret purchasing my Roku.

Dawn

Would LOVE it if a TNT channel and a CBS channel came to Roku.

Da_deb

Yes good YouTube would be nice, More free TV and Movies would be great, and free games. I love my Roku.

Coganfee

A world leading feature auction Pricebenders launched new bidding item Roku 2 HD Streaming Player. Bid now http://www.smartsave.auctions3c.com to own a Roku for crazy low price.

AUMOM

Could you use some of the money to maybe fix the lagging, skipping, slow load times, etc that plague Roku now? There are just too many times we cannot even watch what we want because of this!

Fullsaucecycles

We’ve only got 15 meg internet and the Roku is faster than anything else I’ve used. Our Charter cable we had took just as long to get a picture as the Roku does to load. Perhaps there is an issue with you internet speed?

http://www.facebook.com/dcurielserret David Curiel Serret

… but Fox News is not real journalism. I don’t know if we cant trust that as a reference. It that is the tone, then it is very scary.

ugh, as long as they are just one of many partnerships and don’t force any exclusivity of their news or channels.

Troy

please, please please, get us a sky sports application so we can watch EPL games in the US. This would be the single greatest achievement for Internet delivered content.

lemcabuhat

I live in Mexico and with TelMex I get a maximum download speed of 5mbs.

I LOVE MY ROKU!!!!!

I use it with GetUSAWebsites.TV (Access code 814) They’re different in that they only jump in when the geo check is done, but the rest of the time it’s a direct connection NOT going through a proxy. The result is that I ALWAYS get a HD signal awesome video on Netflix, and Hulu. I hate other services where too many users bog down the server, and the quality goes up and down. (Mostly down and skipping!) Grrrrr….

I think GetUSAWebsites approach is superior, and am VERY happy.

My local friend has only a 1.7mbs download speed, and they are using it with their Roku and they love it too.

GetUSAWebsites has 2 plans. Basic is $4.99 and Deluxe is $7.99 a month. I seriously couldn’t live without it!

Rocky

updowner.ru

kirill shilov

i just wanted to say that i recently found out that your daugter is Rachel Wood, she is at one of my schools: Palo Alto Prep. i am so surprised that i had such a famous person in that school